Used the Bountiful Baskets fruit/veg co-op for the first time in a few years - I should estimate the store price for what I got, but at a glance it seems pretty good. Might use it every other week because it supplies more fruit than we usually eat in a week.

Picked up remaining grocery items for the week at Natural Grocer redeeming a $5 credit that was only good today and tomorrow

Combined two leftover soups for dinner tonight. One of the soups was made of leftover roast lamb and veggies, so twice-baked leftovers?

Teleworked the last two days, so no commuting to the office.

Babying along some vegetable seedling to plant out in several weeks.

It's hard to qualify this as saving money, but I ordered a SoloShot robot camera tonight after waiting quite a long time for it to come out, and then for bugs to get worked out, etc. Today they announced a significant price drop, and some free accessories if purchase this weekend. I think it will be a good investment in my training, as I get a lot out of video-taping my rides with a stationary camera, but miss a lot of detail this robot cam will be able to pick up. So if I can get the value of at least riding lessons out of it over its lifetime, it will pay for itself, and I'm glad I waited to buy until the price dropped.

-Walked to the grocery store. Only got rained on a little. A couple miles each way, so it was a solid amount of walking.

-Using up some old cabbage in our stir fry tomorrow for work lunches, so didn't need to buy bok choy for the stir fry.

-Liked the tennis shoes I got at costco on sale for $16, so I bought a second pair to hoard for when this pair dies. Easily as comfortable as the normally $85, got for $50 off 6pm shoes I got a couple months ago.

-Picked up some books at a free little library. They had the first 3 in a new series.

-Arranged for a carpool to a soccer tournament. I drove to the earlier game. My friend is driving to the evening game. Two advantages - saving time & travel costs, + my husband & I are going to use the bonus solo time to open up a bottle of wine & have an at home date night. I also drove our electric car both ways to the tournament (60 miles round trip)-Packed food for the kids for a "brunch" so they wouldn't be tempted by all of the junk at the tournament-Used the last of our Costco gift card to buy the remaining February groceries. My husband actually bought quite a bit of gardening spring yard stuff, so we could have gotten another couple of weeks out of the groceries. But, it covered February. -Found a pita in the freezer & turned it into a grilled cheese for myself on the road to soccer.

Declined an invitation to meet friends out for dinner and joined them for drinks afterward instead. Still had a fantastic visit and saved the cost (and extra calories) of restaurant food. I kept it to one drink only.

Maybe shoe stores wouldn't make as much money if they sold shoes that people were happy to wear every day for years.

True.

There are shoes sold in chemists in Australia that are designed for comfort. Maybe you have something similar?

Maybe. In the States, I've tried shoe stores, department stores, and outlet stores, and I've tried brands that are marketed for comfort. The trick for me has been finding something that's both comfortable and classic enough to wear daily. It seems like I may be going to Japan for work about once a year, so it should be good if I remember to replace shoes then. Japanese workplaces have more of a uniform expectation for what women will wear, especially early in their careers, so most shops will have nearly identical shoes that just vary slightly in the material, insole, shape of toe, and height of heel. Like this: https://job.career-tasu.jp/2018/features/woman/suits/

Maybe shoe stores wouldn't make as much money if they sold shoes that people were happy to wear every day for years.

True.

There are shoes sold in chemists in Australia that are designed for comfort. Maybe you have something similar?

Maybe. In the States, I've tried shoe stores, department stores, and outlet stores, and I've tried brands that are marketed for comfort. The trick for me has been finding something that's both comfortable and classic enough to wear daily. It seems like I may be going to Japan for work about once a year, so it should be good if I remember to replace shoes then. Japanese workplaces have more of a uniform expectation for what women will wear, especially early in their careers, so most shops will have nearly identical shoes that just vary slightly in the material, insole, shape of toe, and height of heel. Like this: https://job.career-tasu.jp/2018/features/woman/suits/

Hi Kwill. If you had a pair of particular Japanese shoes and liked them, could you order them online and have them shipped?

Hi Kwill. If you had a pair of particular Japanese shoes and liked them, could you order them online and have them shipped?

The ones I liked so much were just from an ordinary department store about nine years ago, and at this point I don't know the brand. In theory, though, probably yes I could get something similar via Rakuten. I've never used Rakuten, but it seems to be the main source for buying Japanese things other than books from overseas. Anyway, hopefully these will last me a while.

Today I improvised breakfast from the freezer, rode my bicycle to church, and also made it to the supermarket to restock before it closed. I ate out for lunch but the plan now is to make dinner and pack lunch for tomorrow.

- I pulled things from the depths of the freezer to make meals for the week, instead of grocery shopping- I found 4 books that I haven't read that I purchased last year, instead of buying a new book on Amazon (bad habit)- I did a deep cleaning of the house, which I feel saves me money(time) because I can find everything I need during a busy week!

I am finishing up lion king costumes for our school play. We have very little money so the costumes are mostly made out of whatever was donated by parents, community members, and other teachers. So far I’ve used old curtains, scraps of fabric, a shower curtain, plastic table clothes, and my best find which is a roll of bailing twine. All told I’ve got costumes for 42 kids and spent less than $150. And I’m going to toot my own horn and say they look damn good.

I had a PB&J for dinner while meal prepping for the week. I meal prepped for the week without having to go to the grocery store. Money win and time win!Went for a bike ride with a friend. Social time without spending any money.Made dessert for myself with a frozen fruit, yogurt, and milk. YUM!Walked to my morning workout class.

- Send invoice (November)- Send invoice again (December)- Send invoice again (January)- Call the person who commissioned the work- Send invoice again (February)- Receive email instructing me to set myself up as a vendor in their system- Complete vendor registration- Forward vendor ID number to my contact and request purchase order, as per instructions- Receive email from my contact to payroll asking what he is supposed to do- Receive email from payroll saying I don't need a purchase number, just need to submit invoice- Send invoice again (February)- Receive invoice from payroll saying they have received invoice but I need to register as a vendor- Send vendor ID number and invoices (again)

The upside is I'm finally in their system, and should be paid at some point ... this year ... maybe.

Spoke too soon.

They rejected the invoices because I don’t have a purchase number. Except, you know, I do.

I re-sent everything again but seriously, their payables department can eat a bag of dicks.

- I pulled things from the depths of the freezer to make meals for the week, instead of grocery shopping- I found 4 books that I haven't read that I purchased last year, instead of buying a new book on Amazon (bad habit)- I did a deep cleaning of the house, which I feel saves me money(time) because I can find everything I need during a busy week!

I completely agree with that one. It's also the same idea for why I maintain, one of the most important things I do every day to save money, is getting enough sleep! It lets me be clear headed, organized, resist temptation, and be more creative with my money savings. It also reduces my risk of future health problems. It keeps me from indulging too much in late night vices, too: too much snacking, "just one more drink", and so on.

-Carpooled to second day of soccer tournament. Friend took the kids to the morning game, so I could work out & clean the house-I drove soccer players to the finals in our electric car, saving on gas. Packed snacks & water to avoid the food at the tournament. -Didn't expect the kids to make the finals, so our dinner plans were our standard longer Sunday cooking. Swapped that for something DH could make while I took the kids to soccer. Avoided wasting the defrosted meat & came back from the game to a hot dinner. Lovely. -Kids were invited to play up a division, so I suppose free entertainment, as you normally pay quite a bit for these tournaments. -Volunteering for a field trip today. Never done it before, & it's the last one ever. (My youngest is in 5th grade, which is the age these things stop). Won't save me money, but my company allows for 16 hours of volunteering time. When I log the volunteering time, they will donate money to the non-profit I volunteered for. So, it will be a bit of a scramble at work today, but a nice thing, my son is SO excited, and I raise money for the school.

- Made stock from a chicken carcass and veggie scraps.- Cleaning the kitchen with primarily citrus vinegar, baking soda, and elbow grease.- Cleaned our stainless pour over coffee cone by boiling it in vinegar and water. Saving the mixture for mopping the floors later. - Couldn't figure out what to make my son for lunch other than mac & cheese, but wanted something healthier. Did some digging and decided on quesadillas with lentil-walnut taco filling I found in the freezer.- DH increased his 401(k) withholding by 1%. We're a long way from maxing it out, but bit by bit we'll get there!

It's 52F out and sunny. Replaced the dead tube in my bike, pumped up the tires on bike and trailer -- it's close enough to springtime to pick my kid up from kindergarten on bike. (Fingers crossed that there's nothing wrong with my bike after a long winter in the garage that I missed. :-). Thanks to this thread for the reminder to do so.

- We were out of town saturday and sunday and had a friend pet sit for us. We paid her in homecooked meals and somewhere peaceful to study. Apparently she's in exams right now and hasn't had time to cook. 2 chicken breasts and half a box of pasta will feed her for a few days and costs way less than if we were to board the dog or pay another sitter. We watch her dog when she goes out of town.- We got home late last night after driving for 2 hours. Instead of hitting the drive-thru or stopping at the grocery store for something prepared, we went straight home where I was able to make a meal in 15 minutes out of pantry items.

Made a meatloaf that will give us two dinners and then leftovers will be frozen to throw into spaghetti sauce later on. Then out of that raw meat we made 19 meat balls. We vac packed them and froze them in several packages for a later date. Made a white bean soup this week and there were left overs so I vac packed 3 pouches of that too.

-Switching both car insurance and home insurance to a new company. Don't know why I put off calling for rates, since we'll be saving several hundred a year now for basically the same coverage.

-Showered at the gym, using their hot water and electricity!

- Treated the myself and the spouse to free coffee using a hoarded gift card.

- Borrowed a book I've been wanting to read from my professor. The library had one copy, which is like two weeks overdue so I'm not sure if my hold would ever come in! (Charles Darwin Voyaging by Janet Brown, for other book nerds on here.)

- Free dinner for the family. The grocery store occasionally throws out freebies on their app. A few weeks ago it was the new "healthy" Campbell's soup line. Mom didn't want her freebie due to sodium concerns, so two cans for my crew. Fleshing it out with a bit of frozen broth and veggies. Scored free Hawaiian rolls via one of those receipt coupons, so all of dinner is free and almost no effort.

- Free running shoes! Neighbor asked me my size, which is the same as hers. She offered me a pair she had that she couldn't wear because they pinched her feet. Fit my narrow feet perfectly. It's all even, we load them up with garden veggies all summer and swap other neighborly things. Social capital! :)

Bonus:

* not saving money but time. Got a jury duty summons. Found out I am relieved of duty because it conflicts with my class schedule. I know, I know, civic duty, etc, etc....but I'm still happy I don't have to do it. Sitting in a jury pool for two weeks -- and longer if I get chosen -- isn't my idea of fun.

Haircut at home this weekend, free muffin at work today, saved on bus fare by walking, and have been using up pantry items for the last week. Loving that bread recipe up thread - I'm going to have to try that!

- Send invoice (November)- Send invoice again (December)- Send invoice again (January)- Call the person who commissioned the work- Send invoice again (February)- Receive email instructing me to set myself up as a vendor in their system- Complete vendor registration- Forward vendor ID number to my contact and request purchase order, as per instructions- Receive email from my contact to payroll asking what he is supposed to do- Receive email from payroll saying I don't need a purchase number, just need to submit invoice- Send invoice again (February)- Receive invoice from payroll saying they have received invoice but I need to register as a vendor- Send vendor ID number and invoices (again)

The upside is I'm finally in their system, and should be paid at some point ... this year ... maybe.

Spoke too soon.

They rejected the invoices because I don’t have a purchase number. Except, you know, I do.

I re-sent everything again but seriously, their payables department can eat a bag of dicks.

Update: they haven't paid the invoice, but they have emailed me a customer satisfaction survey.

Emailed my neighborhood listserv letting folks know I was looking for a particular kind of bassinet for our upcoming new arrival and asking if anyone had one to sell/borrow. (Had already posted in other places with no success.) Miraculously, a neighbor on my own block texted to let me know she had one and we were welcome to have it! This thing retails for over $200 and goes for >$100 used on Craigslist, and even though we didn't really *need* it, we really wanted it, and I'm so psyched that we have it now. It was the last baby item on our list so feeling great to have it checked off. Can't get anything if you don't ask for it, right? :-)

Also, connected with another neighbor who saw my email and let me know that she's having a baby around the same time as me, so got a new friend in the process! Win-win.

* Made homemade chicken noodle soup made with homemade chicken stock, shredded chicken leftover from a whole roast chicken I made this weekend, stray noodles from the pantry, older cherry tomatoes from the fridge, commodity carrots, commodity onions and really expensive salt (that part is chemically ridiculous, I know).

* Drinking expensive wine while I poach a whole snapper in my thrifted fish poacher pan. After we eat Mr. Snapper, I will turn his bones and skin into fish stock for use some other dish.

* I've been looking for a stainless steel roasting pan (I don't trust non-stick and find the coat flakes into my demi-glace) and found one today at Goodwill that was NIB with the roasting rack and "lifters." It was expensive for the thrift shop but 1/4 to 1/3 the price I would pay new, so I brought it home.

* Composted, cloth diapered, used homemade red-wine vinegar in a recipe, used homegrown lemons in a recipe, ate homemade yogurt.

* Made $11 reselling an OOP educational DVD that I bought at a library sale for $0.25. Packaged it for shipment in recycled materials, shipping will be covered by Forever Stamps a friend gave me for helping her cleaning out her late mother's house. The profit will go straight into an investment account.

SURVEY: WHAT SHOULD I ROAST FIRST IN MY NEW THRIFTED ROASTING PAN? DUCK? GOOSE? CHICKEN? QUAILS? PHEASANT? (My husband won't eat red meat, although I do make a mean leg of lamb.)

Scavenged corrugated galvanized steel from neighbor's pile he'd put out on the street for the quarterly big trash pickup. We'll be using it for a workshop area in the backyard of our little rental house. Saved approx. $70.

- A package was supposed to arrive from Target yesterday. It never showed up despite the tracking showing that it was out for delivery at 6:22 am. I called customer service to complain and got a $5 gift card. According to tracking, it hasn't been delivered yet either. Might be giving them another call tonight.

- Usual other things, brought lunch from last night's leftovers made from a ham bought on sale and then frozen.

-Got a work trip coming up on Monday to a city 2 hours away. If I can get a breakfast meeting the next day, I will stay with my parents allowing me to have a nice quick visit home and pocket the in-lieu of hotel money. I'll make the trip in my own car too so I can get mileage back. The trick will be not stopping at IKEA and buying the chair I've been lusting over for 2 months.

After weeks of searching for a bedframe and box spring with no one getting back to me on Kijiji, was about to give up and buy them new (on sale). Finally they all got back to me today! Ended up getting a fairly cheap still in bag box spring, and went to the Habitat Restore for a bed frame, haggled the price down from $25 to $10 due to missing casters. Huzzah!

I ran out of time to pack a lunch today, and I would have bought lunch at work except that the card machine was out of order today. I would have gone into town to buy lunch and use the ATM, but it was too cold. Peanuts, candy, and cookies/biscuits instead. Saved £3.15.

The bus listed on the sign never showed, and I waited for the next bus for about 10 more minutes in freezing cold but finally realised I would be warmer if I just walked home. I only wish I had walked from the beginning. Saved £1. I was going to go to the supermarket and then take a bus home from there, so going straight home deferred that spending until tomorrow.

- Send invoice (November)- Send invoice again (December)- Send invoice again (January)- Call the person who commissioned the work- Send invoice again (February)- Receive email instructing me to set myself up as a vendor in their system- Complete vendor registration- Forward vendor ID number to my contact and request purchase order, as per instructions- Receive email from my contact to payroll asking what he is supposed to do- Receive email from payroll saying I don't need a purchase number, just need to submit invoice- Send invoice again (February)- Receive invoice from payroll saying they have received invoice but I need to register as a vendor- Send vendor ID number and invoices (again)

The upside is I'm finally in their system, and should be paid at some point ... this year ... maybe.

Spoke too soon.

They rejected the invoices because I don’t have a purchase number. Except, you know, I do.

I re-sent everything again but seriously, their payables department can eat a bag of dicks.

Update: they haven't paid the invoice, but they have emailed me a customer satisfaction survey.

@mustachepungoeshere, what kind of incompetent fucktards are running that A/P dept.? I had a similarly frustrating experience dealing with a very large company. Impossible to speak to someone and help them understand the issue (two invoices sent using same PO: first shipment was incomplete, second was backorders — some genius closed out the PO after first shipment - not hard to solve if someone will TALK to you). Constant email replies to “invoice paid/PO closed/log in to see status” but no way to log in, because that information was never given to me in the first place. It did finally get paid several months (and several emails and help from someone at a local branch) later. Keep hammering on them; you WILL prevail!

On the small things to save money front, ate all meals at or from home, as usual. Phew, stayed on topic;)

@mustachepungoeshere, what kind of incompetent fucktards are running that A/P dept.? I had a similarly frustrating experience dealing with a very large company. Impossible to speak to someone and help them understand the issue (two invoices sent using same PO: first shipment was incomplete, second was backorders — some genius closed out the PO after first shipment - not hard to solve if someone will TALK to you). Constant email replies to “invoice paid/PO closed/log in to see status” but no way to log in, because that information was never given to me in the first place. It did finally get paid several months (and several emails and help from someone at a local branch) later. Keep hammering on them; you WILL prevail!

On the small things to save money front, ate all meals at or from home, as usual. Phew, stayed on topic;)

It's offshore.

I realise that the inefficient processes are not the fault of the people who work there, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to take the opportunity to leave feedback when asked.

Which means it got awkward when they called me asking why I was dissatisfied.